Why do Asians care about scores so much?

[cobrat]

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And while I think work ethic is really important, I think some parents with the intense attitude we’re talking about here are asking for work from their kids that has diminishing returns, as compared with other ways they could be spending their time. The kid who has to spend two hours a day practicing the violin, but who is still only a middling player is, in my opinion, wasting about 90 minutes a day on that activity. Meanwhile, some other kid is earning a Gold Award from the Girl Scouts or something like that.

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<p>Agree. </p>

<p>However, whether something’s wasted effort or not is also not necessarily correlated with whether someone has natural talent for a given activity. </p>

<p>For instance, if a child/teen talented at violin, but were forced into it or to continue the activity by parents even if he/she is playing at a superstar level, he/she may personally feel going into it or continuing it is a waste of time even if he/she only needs to practice for 5 minutes to maintain his/her skills. </p>

<p>On the flipside, if someone enjoys a given activity…even if they’re middling or worse, it may not necessarily be considered wasted time by him/her so long as it doesn’t impact other important activities in his/her life. In that case, taking him/her out of said activity because he/she’s not a superstar or even “good” may not be necessarily in his/her best interests.</p>

<p>Crossposted with OHMomof2. :)</p>